


Two Sides of the Same Coin

by Smiley5494



Category: Arthurian Mythology & Related Fandoms, Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Tragedy, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Destiny, Fate, Fate & Destiny, Gen, Immortality, Magic and Courage, Meta, Metafiction, Minor Gwen/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Post-Canon, Tragedy, all about Merlin and Arthur and their relationship, and a little bit about Gwen because she's the best, life and death, some bits read more like poetry, two sides of the same coin, what a loaded phrase
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:22:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28641426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smiley5494/pseuds/Smiley5494
Summary: Merlin and Arthur. Two sides of the same coin; doomed to spin and never meet. They were parallel lines, stretching on for eternity without ever touching.
Relationships: Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 10





	Two Sides of the Same Coin

Merlin lived while Arthur died, and it felt more like a curse than a gift. Destiny is a web, ever-expanding, trapping those who live within its spell. No man may know his destiny, and wasn’t that the truth? For Albion never came to pass; the story of the Once and Future King and Emrys is one of tragedy, seeded with death and betrayal and the everlasting remnants of an era long past.

The endless expanse of immortality is inconceivable to the mortal mind, and those gifted cursed with endless life are a different breed entirely. When life is eternity there is no impact. Eons are wasted, spent mourning and thinking, until humanity had risen and fallen and risen again.

Humans have less than a hundred years to make their mark, and those seldom few who do are eventually forgotten—immortality brings comfort. There is no rush, there is no remembrance. There is no impact.

Merlin and Arthur. Two sides of the same coin; doomed to spin and never meet. They were parallel lines, stretching on for eternity without ever touching.

Merlin was magic, thrumming with power, pure magic in the shape of a human; he was always and forever, the unseen and unknown lines of life beneath the earth. On the other hand, Arthur was humanity; gone in the blink of an eye, the embodiment of fragile impermanence, of ephemerality, remembered for millennia. His legacy was one of legend, a myth, a fact.

If Merlin was Life then Arthur was Death, two sides of the same coin, doomed to spin on one side, forever apart. For Life and Death can never meet, are cursed to spin in an endless cycle of waiting and knowing and hoping; for Life covets Death, and Death takes and takes and takes with no return.

* * *

The legend is this: When Albion needs him most Arthur will return.

The legend is this: Merlin will wait for him.

The legend is this: All good things come to an end.

The answer is this: It is both a warning and a hope, a legend that says; when the going gets tough when the worst has come to pass, there will be a hero, a legendary king, ready to lead you out of ruin. It is still a warning, that even through world wars, pandemics and genocides, Arthur has yet to return, so the worst is yet to come.

The answer is this: He will live forever, watching empires rise and fall and Kingdoms die, for no man can ever know his destiny, and the existence of expectation breeds surprise and failure. The instant Merlin learnt of his destiny became the instant the tragedy began; for the golden age of Albion never arrived.

The answer is this: You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain. Some become their own worst enemy earlier than others— _Mordred, Morgana_ —while some take longer— _Arthur, Merlin_. The betrayals cut deep, and seeds mistrust and fear, the love of one can become the hatred of another.

* * *

Two sides of the same coin.

Merlin and Arthur.

There is love there, and no small amount of it; Arthur is Merlin’s world, and Merlin is Arthur’s most trusted. The story is one of love, even if you take Guinevere out of the equation. Whether that be romantic love or the familial love between brothers, Merlin and Arthur are connected through life and death, destiny and fate.

_Do you believe in fate?_

Fate (noun) the development of events outside a person's control, regarded as predetermined by a supernatural power. To be destined to happen, turn out, or act in a particular way.

_Do you believe in fate?_

It is the sort of question whispered in late-night sleepovers, the kind that makes people stop and think. The existence of fate is the antonym of choice. For something to be predetermined it negates the existence of choice and free will. Think about it this way, if you walk down a road and come to a fork where the path splits, which one do you choose? Think about it this way, if you choose the left is it your choice or was it decided long before?

_Do you believe in fate?_

_What a loaded question._

* * *

Most types of coins are made of two flat sides—heads and tails—and one rounded side. The two flat sides never meet, always separated, and yet it would not be a coin without them.

If Arthur is heads, and Merlin is tails, then what is the separator? What keeps the two apart?

The answer is destiny and fate. The choices that they made while Arthur was alive—before he became Death. They had ten years together, then they would spend the rest of eternity revolving around the hope that Arthur would return.

A heads cannot meet a tails, for if it could, it would not be a coin.

Similarly, if the tragedy of Merlin and Arthur did not end as it did it would not truly be Merlin and Arthur. The story was founded on a tragedy and it ended like so, with Gwen ruling alone, less than half the round table surviving, the whole Pendragon line dead. Merlin watched everyone he had known die with no way to join them, cursed to live forever.

Guinevere, a princess in some legends, a maidservant in others. A Queen in all. Hers is a tale of romance, of love for a knight and love for a king. In every iteration of the Arthurian legend, she, wife to a king, lover to a knight, makes a decision that echoes forever. When Arthur stopped being Courage and became Death, she stopped being a wife and became a widow. Likewise, Merlin stopped being Magic and started being Life.

Two sides of the same coin. It was said by Kilgharrah, it was said by Hunith. People who had never known either saw the potential, and they saw the sadness. Ten years was not enough, not for either, and to an immortal a decade is nothing.

What a nothing it is?

What a tragedy—the legends of Merlin and Arthur—what a romance.


End file.
